Do you have Aphantasia?

[Pat "5mph"]

Thank you for this thread. It will really help me to understand and help children at school who struggle to follow oral instructions.

I did ask some young ones (uni age), why most of them could not follow simple oral instructions.
The answer was "send us a what's app", we are used to this kind of communication.
Right enough, a few months later a new manager started communicating us work instructions via instant messaging: productivity increased threefold!
Then they left, the new manager banned mobile phone use on shift: it was chaos again, team members misunderstanding or forgetting instructions.
Teams were aged 18 to 25.

 

[Illaveago]

I see 4 and 5, or a red version of 3.

Mine was 6 and a red 3

 

[Andy in Germany]

I did ask some young ones (uni age), why most of them could not follow simple oral instructions.
The answer was "send us a what's app", we are used to this kind of communication.
Right enough, a few months later a new manager started communicating us work instructions via instant messaging: productivity increased threefold!
Then they left, the new manager banned mobile phone use on shift: it was chaos again, team members misunderstanding or forgetting instructions.
Teams were aged 18 to 25.

That's interesting. I have a tendency to write stuff down as I'm told it because if I don't I forget very fast.

 

[Illaveago]

Thank you for this thread. It will really help me to understand and help children at school who struggle to follow oral instructions.

Interesting! I used to find that when I was at school during writing compositions that my brain would create a story that I would become so involved in that my hand couldn't write fast enough and so missed out words. When I read it back to myself much later it was utter gibberish !

 

[Illaveago]

So is there a difference in reading a novel as to listening to one on the radio ?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

That's interesting. I have a tendency to write stuff down as I'm told it because if I don't I forget very fast.

I don't, unless I'm very tired, or if I'm learning new skills, then I would make notes.
Of course, if one receives multiple instructions on top of their usual tasks, notes are a must, we are not robots

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Interesting! I used to find that when I was at school during writing compositions that my brain would create a story that I would become so involved in that my hand couldn't write fast enough and so missed out words. When I read it back to myself much later it was utter gibberish !

Nowadays, you could dictate your story to a computer program!

So is there a difference in reading a novel as to listening to one on the radio ?

Uh, for sure: I can't focus on the oral word for too long, unless it's work, when I'm paid to pay attention.
I'd rather have a story written down for me to read, to imagine the words so to speak.
In the linked test, I can see clearly in my mind most of the examples given.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Thread resurrection alert!

Seems aphantasia comes in cycles in terms of news coverage as it was covered on the BBC News site yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68675976

The story interested me as someone who cannot visualise anything.

 

[gbb]

I have just found out about the condition Aphantasia. I had never heard of it before now, but after reading that article I think that I probably suffer from it!

I had noticed that I find it very difficult to solve crossword clues unless I am actually looking at the puzzle. If someone reads a clue out to me, it somehow doesn't sink in, but I can often spot the answer very quickly if I am reading it myself.

I have always drawn sketches to help me visualise ideas. These days I spend a lot of time using computer drawing software to illustrate ideas.

If I try to imagine what something looks like, my mind almost goes blank. I can't believe that I had never noticed this before. I suppose I assumed that it is the way that everybody is, but it turns out that some people form very clear and detailed mental images at will.

This doesn't apply to me when dreaming - I have very realistic and convincing dreams, but I can't seem to conjure up similar scenes when awake.

If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine looking at something familiar, would you be able 'see' it in your mind's eye?

Perhaps for the very reasons you describe...if someone asks me a slightly complicated maths question, I just can't visualise it, I will write it down and usually it makes it far more understandable.
It takes me a few seconds to 'switch on ' if my wife says something unexpectedly (not just her tbf), I inevitably have to ask them to start again, it's like I dont absorb the first few words.

Flip side is our 10 year old grandaighter, she asked me to ask her a maths question, something like 43x 142...and she thought for a second and gave me the answer....amazing, how did you do that ?
I can see the numbers in my mind, she replied, it all just make sense, i don't know how or why...it just does.
Amazing...